The past winter was filled with more snow than many people can remember, especially for Texans. Texas had their first snowstorm in years and unfortunately was not able to handle it very well. Unlike northern states, Texas isn’t equipped to deal with snow which is proving disastrous for its residents. Millions are lacking water, heat, and electricity. Pipes are constantly bursting as well due to the water pressure, resulting in destroying peoples homes and livelihoods. In such a crisis it’s important to help in any way you can, and Mitchell’s Plumbing & Heating clearly understood that.

On February 21st, Andrew Mitchell along with other family members drove 22 hours to Houston, TX from Morristown, NJ to aid Texans in this deadly storm. Since arriving in Texas, the group had more than 13 plumbing jobs done. Mitchell’s wife, Kisha Pinnock, wrote to CNN, “By the time we got here there was already about four or five jobs lined up from my sister, and we just hit those first and then everything after that has really just been referrals from like the initial customers, like their friends and family. Since we’ve been here, it has really been nonstop.”

The family made the choice to go to Texas after seeing various posts on social media made by Texan plumbers requesting out-of-state help because of how overwhelmed they were. Many plumbers were receiving 100-150 calls per day to help fix plumbing issues. Their workload was so backed up that many residents were told that they had to wait 3-4 weeks for a plumber to come. These issues sparked the Mitchell family and many other plumbers across America to send help. 

The natural disaster has also led to severe price gouging. Barbara Benson, who was eventually aided by the Mitchells talked about how some plumbers would charge $2,000 just to diagnose the problem. 

The Mitchell family, despite working tirelessly, is invigorated by helping those in need. “It gets him going when people don’t have water,” Andrew’s brother-in-law, Isaiah told NJ Advance Media. “Similar to if a chef … were to hear somebody’s going hungry, it would be his main prerogative to get those people a nice plate of food.”

If you wish to help those in Texas here are a few resources listed:

https://give.salvationarmytexas.org/give/171647/?_ga=2.185152937.1097159084.1613574419-2066097069.1613574419#!/donation/checkout

https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation.html/

https://www.centraltexasfoodbank.org/get-involved/donate

https://toofound.org/donate/

https://rebuildingtogether.org/winter-storms

https://support.savethechildren.org/site/Donation2;jsessionid=00000000.app30117a?4890.donation=form1&df_id=4890&mfc_pref=T&NONCE_TOKEN=7738876395CAE0FD3152EABB3A107F8A